Udacity has trained hundreds of managers and executives since the launch of our first Executive Program — AI for Business Leaders — earlier this year. Today, we’re excited to announce our newest program aimed at preparing executives for digital transformation: The Data Science for Business Leaders Executive Program.
This program — designed in partnership with Alteryx, a leading provider of an end-to-end data science and analytics platform — prepares managers and executives to implement data science initiatives across their businesses.
Why should business leaders consider this course? According to Udacity CEO Gabe Dalporto, “The most successful businesses in the world today put data at the center of their culture and decision making. Udacity’s newest Executive Program equips business leaders to unlock the value of data in their organizations and achieve transformational business outcomes.”
“Companies across every industry and vertical have an appetite to become more data-driven, but often, they either don’t know where to begin or don’t believe they have the background to implement data-driven strategies,” said Alan Jacobson, Chief Data and Analytics Officer at Alteryx. “The Data Science for Business Leaders Executive Program will help executives and managers – who may not have a background in data science – get on the right path toward building a culture of analytics and experiencing transformative business outcomes.”
Why Data Science is Important for Business Leaders
The volume of data that exists in the world and that’s available to businesses is increasing exponentially — humans produce 2.5 quintillion bytes of data per day and this is expected to rise to 463 exabytes by 2025. As the volume of data increases, the opportunity to generate critical business insights grows alongside the challenge of managing all that data effectively.
In terms of the opportunity that data provides, a study by the McKinsey Global Institute reports that data-driven organizations are now 23 times more likely to acquire customers, 6 times as likely to retain customers, and 19 times as likely to be profitable as a result. At the same time, McKinsey also reports that the creation of a strategy now ranks as the number one challenge to (and reason for) companies’ success at data and analytics.
This speaks volumes about the skills gap among business leaders when it comes to designing and implementing data-driven strategies. Just a few of the common reasons that businesses struggle to use data as a transformative strategy are siloed data, poor data reliability and a lack of analytical talent.
This Executive program addresses these challenges in an organization’s data transformation journey by helping managers and executives make better strategic, data-driven decisions.
About the Data Science for Business Leaders Executive Program
The Data Science for Business Leaders Executive Program focuses on the unique knowledge and skills that business leaders need to unlock the value of data in their organizations.
Upon graduating from the program, business leaders will be able to identify and assess data science opportunities, develop a human capital plan for staffing and structuring a business’s data science team, and evaluate strategic technical decisions around data architecture.
The program is ideal for business executives and managers who make or provide input on key strategic decisions, as well as anyone in an organization who’s interested in harnessing data to drive transformation.
In order to graduate from the program, students will complete a capstone project that demonstrates mastery of the skills covered in Data Science for Business Leaders, which will be graded by Udacity’s network of experienced project reviewers.
In this capstone project, students will complete a business case for a new executive who is tasked with preparing a 100-day data science plan for a company of their choosing (this could be the student’s current company, some other existing company, or a fictitious business context provided).
Over the course of the project, the student will be asked to deliver the following, in the form of a detailed presentation to the “CEO”:
- The Human Capital plan for their data science organization
- The Technical plan for their data science organization, including the Data and Machine learning Architecture Strategy
- Identification of six data science opportunities for the organization, complete with stack ranking, risk analysis, and critical success factors
- A roadmap for executing these six data science opportunities.
All project submissions will be graded by and receive feedback from Udacity’s network of experienced reviewers.
Learn With the Best
Your instructor in this program is Ed Wiley, Chief Technology Officer of Enveda Therapeutics. Mr. Wiley has over 20 years of experience building, leading, and advising world-class machine learning, AI, and data science teams at companies at stages from startup to Fortune 50.
“Throughout my career, I have seen data science projects succeed — and I’ve seen them fail. Udacity’s Data Science for Business Leaders Executive Program will help guide business leaders toward building successful artificial intelligence, machine learning, and big data initiatives,” explained Mr. Wiley.
“Business leaders will find valuable guidance in structuring, staffing, and executing on major data science initiatives. C-suite executives will find value in identifying the “art of the possible” with respect to data science and how it might be harnessed to transform the business.”
Become a Data-Driven Business Leader. Enroll Now!
According to McKinsey, 86% of executives say their organizations have been at best only somewhat effective at meeting the primary objective of their data and analytics programs, including more than one-quarter who say they’ve been ineffective. There’s no better way to prepare your business for the undercurrents of data transformation than by registering today for the Data Science for Business Leaders Executive Program.
